Stars are tiny holes,
In the floor of heaven.
____________________
~ 10 hours earlier ~
I landed harshly against the solid earth, the bare skin of my arms bruised, and blood seeping from a new scar along my jaw. It'd heal soon enough, but fuck, it hurt. My entire body ached as though traveling through a ring of blood took more out of me then it did the caster.
I heard a groan a few yards away from me, and I assumed Victoria was enduring the same exhaustion I felt, but when my eyes finally cracked open, I was greeted with another reality.
The sun hit my cheeks, warming my skin as I sat up and swallowed, my heart beating so fast I could hear the blood rushing in my ears. But the first thing I saw made me tense, my eyes instinctively narrowing.
Victoria was there, groaning and growling and seething as she always did, but there was no escaping the tight grip Gabriel had on her hair and the silver blade he held to her neck. Blood already seeped from her movements, but she paid it no mind while she glanced at me, those panicked eyes urging me to run, even at her expense.
She probably had no idea what just happened, or how she was quite literally in a clearing in the middle of nowhere. The scents were unfamiliar, the shifts of the wind were unfamiliar, the nature was unfamiliar. A human wouldn't notice perhaps, but a wolf could tell.
We were in another country.
I immediately got to my feet, although it felt as though I'd fallen from the sky rather than through a magic circle. My hand shot out in both warning and surrender. "Gabriel," I bit out, "Let her go. She has nothing to do with any of this."
Gabriel arched a brow, victory brimming in his eyes. "Oh? But she's the only one who'll bring you to heel. You know I'm not above killing, Alexandria. So, you're going to stand right there until my men arrive. When they search you, you will not retaliate, and when they chain you, you will comply. Or else she dies. And you'll still be trapped."
I snarled, holding back the urge to shift and rely on the full extent of my power. But I couldn't. Not with Victoria right there. Not with her life on the line.
She shook her head as though telling me to ignore his words, to move, to do something, but I stood where I was and made no sudden movements.
When a group of about a dozen Fae males arrived and bowed to Gabriel, I still did nothing even as one of them patted me down for weapons. I never thought my first time seeing so many of my kind in twelve years would be in an ambush. A part of my heart broke at what they'd become. An entire group of warriors who now bow to a vengeful, remorseless bastard of a man. Father would be devastated if he saw this.
Still, when he drew my wrists behind me, I didn't move, I couldn't. I refused to take that risk. To gamble with any life that wasn't my own.
A second later I instinctively lurched against the harsh metal of the silver-lined cuffs. Gabriel strode over to me, already having tossed Victoria to another Fae who now still held that same silver blade to her neck.
"Come now, Princess," he mocked, "What is this game we're playing of capture and be captured?" His voice was amused, and I jerked my head when he brought his fingers to my chin. "Who would've thought you'd end up like this?"
I snarled at him, my irises burning gold as he raised his hands in mock surrender. "Fuck you, Gabriel."
His lips curled into a smirk. "Oh, the Alpha King is going to miss you," he murmured, those eyes burning with promise. "It's almost as if history repeats itself, no? The Luna Queen once again in the hands of a Fae."
I growled at him again, the sound vicious while he patted my cheek, not even flinching. When I couldn't take it anymore, I brought my leg up to knee him in the chest, but he was out of the way in an instant. "Now, what did I say about complying?"
Gabriel snapped a finger, and Victoria was crying out. The man who held her had curved the knife against her arm, creating a permanent scar. When Gabriel took note of the devastated look on my face, he grinned. "That's right, Princess. She'll pay for every little mistake you make."
I resisted the urge to do it again, to attack without thinking, and his grin widened even further. "Now then, shall I repay you for your kindness during my own capture?"
I hadn't an instant to even mull over his words, before his fist was sinking into my abdomen, and the air was knocked out of my lungs. I would've fallen to my knees if it weren't for the men who held me.
Gabriel shook out his fist. "Now that was quite satisfying."
I lifted my head just enough to glower at him. "Enjoy it while you fucking can, Gabriel. This won't last long."
"Oh my, what a fierce Luna Queen you are," he mused, those eyes still so piercing. "Take her to our camp. I'll meet you all there after paying our beloved king a visit." Even as he spoke, his wings fluttered behind him, ready to be put to use. My eyes briefly widened at his words.
He was going to see Alexius. To tell him what, I had no clue. But I doubt it was going to be much of a friendly visit seeing as to how he wasn't taking me directly to him. Did my brother still care? Did he even want me alive? Or had he played some role in orchestrating this?
Had he given the order to kill me?
There were so many questions when it came to Alexius. We'd been separated for more than a decade and... people changed. Especially if they were under the tutelage of a man like Gabriel.
Gabriel stepped towards me again, his hand coming to my cheek, those eyes narrowing on my face in a way that made goosebumps rise on my skin. I could practically see the cogs turning in his mind, see the rising schemes and awful plans. "Sweet dreams, Alexandria."
The last thing I heard before his hand met my pressure point was Victoria's protective and ever so frustrated growl. And the last thing I thought was...
How the fuck did everything go to shit so quickly?
~ Present ~
So, here I am. Twelve hours later. Locked in a room with a she-wolf who wasn't even supposed to be guarding me at all.
In hindsight, that two day delay is what cost me. And not recognizing the tang of blood in the air as more than just a prison stench. I should've known Gabriel wouldn't just lay around in the dungeons. But fuck, there was no way to have predicted his course of action. And Victoria's presence? An absolute coincidence. She was probably heavily regretting following me down those steps less than twenty four hours ago.
Gabriel had thrown us into some dingy concrete room that was carefully lined with magic circles that forbade any kind of incantations. Any flame I called was swiftly snuffed out.
He'd been prepared for this. The bastard.
He acted alone. With his own little faction of Fae. Alexius either didn't know of this or didn't care, I would've seen him by now if he did. Even now, my heart ached to meet him again, to greet him after so long. But another part of me, one much deeper and much more divided, yearned for Livius. His distance could be felt, his mark burned with a life of its own. I wonder what he's doing right now. The guards had seen us disappear, but they'd never know where we went.
He was probably sending out patrols around the clock, all in a futile attempt to figure out what the fuck happened. But he'd never pinpoint where we were. There was no way for him to know. Not unless Levon could translate the circle and discern the destination, but even he wasn't so well-versed in that — in the ancient writing of the Fae. They'd never figure it out without the help of someone from our kind.
Hell, even I didn't know where I was. How could I expect them to find me?
"I just don't get it," Victoria growled as though voicing my thoughts. Her eyes were bright, her silver wound refusing to heal. "One second we were right there... in the castle, and now we're-" she cut herself off, looking around frantically. "I don't even know where we fucking are."
When they'd first thrown us in here, she had kicked furiously at the concrete door in a futile attempt to knock it down. I practically had to pull her away just to make sure she didn't injure herself even further, if we were to be trapped in here, we might as well save our energy. There was no point wasting our time on something that wouldn't work out.
Still, a part of me was shocked by her reaction, but it suddenly became very clear to me that wolves got jumpy when they were taken from their packs.
This was undoubtedly her first time being far away from home and stripped of the ability to return. She was surrounded by Fae, a species who loathed her kind. And there was no escaping them. At least I had the comfort of my heritage, of my magic, of my race, but she was a wolf, another clear enemy, another expendable target.
I turned to her, my head tilted in question. "Can you reach anyone from the pack?" I asked.
She immediately shook her head. "We're too far," she responded, a swirl of panic and anger burning in her sea colored eyes. "It takes a massive distance to cut off a mind link."
"I know," I murmured, resisting the urge to scream. My mark still throbbed like a beating heart, always reminding me that somewhere out there my other half lived and breathed and yearned for me just as much as I did him, if not more so.
Silently, I narrowed my attention on the bond in an attempt to reach the man on the other side. But it was as though a wall as thick as the concrete door we were trapped behind greeted me instead.
There was no reaching Livius either, it seemed.
I pressed my hand against another wall, feeling for whatever sealing spell had been placed on the room, but it wasn't here. I had to find where it was drawn if I wanted to rewrite it. But there was no way to tell. And it would take time. Too much time.
"Please tell me you have a plan," Victoria murmured and I sighed in exhaustion.
"I don't know, Victoria. Even if we manage to get out of here, I don't even know where we are. If I can find out where the circle is that's barring my magic, I could rewrite it, but there's no telling when someone would come in. Gabriel was able to hide it because the dungeons were so dim and murky, but this room..." My eyes trailed over the bright pale lights. He couldn't get played by his own tricks, not if he could help it.
"So we're trapped," she said, bringing her hand up to her head, her eyes closing in frustration.
I leaned against the wall and slid down, my eyes also closing. "I'm sorry."
She was silent for a beat, then, "Don't you dare apologize," she told me, and my gaze drifted back to her.
I eyed her carefully, watching for a flicker of irritation, a rise in anger. "Every encounter you've had with Gabriel has been my fault. And now here you are," I continued, leaning my head against the wall, my gaze pinned to the ceiling.
"Shut up," she retorted with all the stubbornness in the world. "I'm the one who stuck with you after you told me to leave. And it's my fault you couldn't retaliate out there. You can't blame yourself for the shit we're in."
I almost laughed at her brazen attitude, especially as she came to sit down beside me, her arms curling around her knees. "We'll be fine. Don't look so hopeless," Victoria added, almost as an afterthought.
"Two is better than one." I sighed again, repeating her earlier words, and she smiled, her panic dimming ever so slightly.
"Two is better than one," she repeated.
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Livius' POV:
Something wasn't right.
I knew this feeling. It was the same gut wrenching instinct that curled around me when Alexandria had been ambushed, when she'd encountered Zander, when she was drowning. It was all the same, always the same.
So when I received a call from the castle grounds on my way back from the city, I wasn't struck by any surprise. And when I pushed my Beta, Jayden, to explain, and he'd refused to say a word out of concern that a human would catch my reaction, I knew it was serious.
I had already taken note of the double patrols by the time I stepped into the foyer, I had smelled the number of wolves in my woods, the number of men combing through my territory.
She was gone.
Again.
There was something about her this morning. Something that had felt so real and fleeting and perfect. Something that was too good to be true. I had found myself instinctively wishing for mornings like that, for a thousand tomorrows with her right there. And the more I thought about it, the more I wished I'd stayed.
It was the simple things that stood out. Like seeing her washing her face and then rolling her eyes when she caught me staring, soap bubbles clinging to her cheeks like falling pearls. Or watching her tie her hair up while grasping the knowledge that no one else in the world would ever get to see her gearing up for the day like this. No one but me.
It was the way she knotted up my tie and patted my chest appreciatively when she finished. The way she smiled through the mirror. The way her golden eyes glittered beneath the chandelier. For some very odd reason, I'd only taken note of it today.
And now she was gone.
The guards at the dungeon had panicked, their reports lined with shock, fear, and disbelief. They'd watched their queen and Victoria disappear into thin air after a blinding light shot through their vision.
Jayden was speaking at my side, but I didn't quite hear him. They had called a meeting to brief me on the situation, to explain how it happened, and where she might've been. But Gabriel's scent was gone and untraceable. And I had seen the blood that lingered within his rusty cell. All of it was his, down to the last fine curve of the indecipherable drawing, an ancient language that was only taught amongst the royal family and elite fae council members.
Rage coursed through me, intense and all consuming. As suffocating as a world without air. She'd been stolen from me. From the one place I swore to her was safe. Gabriel had come onto my territory, killed my pack members, invaded my den, and stole my Queen.
I would kill him. He would die for this. No trial. No court. No cellar.
And had Alexius orchestrated this? It had been his initial plan, wasn't it? To whisk her away to whatever rat's nest he called a home.
For a sliver of a moment, my anger heightened until the world itself turned red and a part of me yearned to simply burn everything to the ground. To let all hell break loose and let history repeat itself.
I had never quite understood how my father had felt when my mother was taken. I had always loathed him for causing so much carnage, for sowing so much hatred. But that same anger tore through me now and his actions were beginning to make a bit more sense. The mate bond, the urge to protect, didn't quite help either.
Everyone who sat in this hall knew it too. The last time a Luna Queen had been taken by a Fae, she'd never returned. They'd stolen my Mother and I'd give them hell before I let them take Alexandria away too.
"We don't know how far the ring might've taken them. Or even where the Fae Empire is, for tha-"
"Tell me then, Elder," I suddenly said, my voice a low growl as I snapped my gaze to the man who spoke. "What do you know?"
The man swallowed, his skin going pallid and he dropped his head, the weight of my gaze too much to bear. He hadn't expected me to cut him off. I never have before. "Nothing at the moment, Your Majesty. But we will find your Queen. I prom-"
I let out a snarl that had everyone at the table stiffening and the man jumped. I'd been tired of their shit for too long. "To respect my fathers wishes, I've kept all you Elders on my council for years. And with every fucking meeting I sit in, I find myself realizing how absolutely useless every single one of you bastards are."
He swallowed again and this time all the Elders at the table seemed to look at each other and inch further away. "King Livius, we know you're upset, but-"
"Oh, my apologies, do I look upset to you?" I bit out, cutting him off. My anger flared again, practically singeing the room with its intensity. "I'm fucking furious.
"You fools never even recognized her as your Luna. Even now you still refer to her as my Queen and not your own, as if I haven't already fucking claimed her as my mate. You were always going to give her shit for being a Fae, and we both know it," I continued, my eyes trained on him.
Alexandria and I had kept it at the back of our heads for far too long. But the more I mulled it over, the more I realized that these Elders of mine would've been the root of our problems be it not for external threats. That night when she'd shifted, their contempt for her blood was as clear as day, and now they were trying to sit here and tell me some bullshit about how they'd help get her back?
Fuck them.
I was silent for a long moment, the meeting hall cracking with tension, no one so much as breathing. "Get out," I finally said, eyeing all the members of my Father's former council with a new deep seated hatred. They could go check themselves into retirement homes for all I cared. I didn't owe them my respect anymore.
"Beta Jayden, Delta Noah, General Levon, Sebastian, Elias, and Julian are the only wolves I want in here. The rest of you all, out. And for the love of the fucking goddess, don't come back and bother me unless you have something useful to say."
They didn't move for a beat, but a single growl had them scrambling out of their chairs and through the door. When it finally shut behind the last Elder, I fell back in my chair and pinched the bridge of my nose, my eyes closing with both frustration and exhaustion. "Julian, go find Damian and Mrs. Valentina. Brief them on the situation."
I didn't look up, but I heard the scrape of his chair as he stood, noting the way he paused for a moment to bow, before heading out to track the two of them down.
How did this happen? She was here. She was just here. A few hours ago, she was in my arms. Safe. Content. Happy.
With another frustrated growl, I turned back to the table and unfurled the massive map that waited to be marked.
Beta Jayden spoke first. "You said there was no way to pinpoint her location, Levon?"
My uncle nodded, his eyes briefly meeting mine before moving down to the map. "The only person who can decipher the location of that circle is the caster, or a highly ranked Fae, neither of whom we have access to."
Sebastian regarded the map carefully, ever the focused adviser when it came to matters of serious importance. "And the limits?"
"There are no limits. A magic circle like that steals power from the very blood of its caster." Levon rubbed at his jaw, exhaustion written along his aging features. "Gabriel is no royal. But he is strong. He likely went farther than we can imagine, but I doubt he made it off the continent."
Sebastian crossed over the map, his eyes honed in on our location once he'd canceled out the remaining land masses. "Great... that just leaves the entirety of Europe."
"There's no way to tell," Noah murmured with a tired sigh. "He could've taken her all the way to Poland and there'd be no trace."
Jayden muttered his agreement. "There's no trail to follow when it comes to Fae magic." That's what made it so powerful.
"We'll conduct a transcontinental search," I announced, my hand moving to France and creating a circle around its surroundings. "Contact every pack in Europe, let them know that their Queen has been taken. Have them memorize her scent and check every corner of their territories and their surrounding cities."
They all eyed me carefully, their concern obvious. We had never made an official announcement. No one outside our close-knit pack knew the King had found his mate and whatever had escaped had been a lifeless rumor. This wasn't how it was supposed to be.
I had made plans to introduce her with a party of the ages. Now I just wanted her to be safe and alive.
I merely nodded and they all returned their gaze to the map. "Have the Alpha's call in whenever a city is cleared, we'll mark it here," I continued, the mark on my neck pulsing with a life of its own. It was proof. The only proof I had that she was all right, that she wasn't suffering.
But I still couldn't reach her. Not through the bond, not through the link, nowhere.
"If they so much as catch a whiff of her scent," I bit out, making sure my orders were clear. "Tell them to stand down and report back. Gabriel is not to be engaged by any of their wolves."
They nodded their understanding, Jayden and Noah already moving to make the necessary phone calls for such a large-scale search. Levon's face went blank as he flung out commands for our own searches through pack links, though we all knew she wasn't anywhere on our land. It was better to be safe than sorry. Sebastian and Elias moved to the far wall, each of them sifting through a line of books to see if there was anything that could help decipher the remains of that stupid magic circle.
With no commands left to give, I was alone with my thoughts again, my knuckles meeting my lips as I furrowed my brows. Of all the people she could disappear with, how the fuck did Victoria end up with her?
How had they even ended up in the dungeons together?
I didn't know what Gabriel wanted Alexandria for, he'd tried to kill her once, but now what? And if he barely had reason to keep my mate alive, then what would he do to Victoria? The she-wolf who just happened to be there?
The guards at the dungeons had received heavy condemnation, but if their report was correct, it didn't seem like Gabriel had made plans to kidnap her. It seemed like something that had simply happened.
Knowing Alexandria, she had probably attempted to stop him from getting away and instead ended up being dragged in.
I told her that stubbornness of hers would get her into trouble.
We all froze when someone knocked loudly at the door. Julian would've walked in immediately, and from the scent... it seems to be a guard.
After muttering a quick, come in, the wolf entered, his body quickly dropping into a bow before he gasped for breath. We all watched him carefully, everyone on edge. How much worse could this day get?
"Your Majesty," the messenger finally spoke, clearing his throat while he regained some of his composure. "There... there's a Fae... at the steps, outside the palace. He demands to meet you.... there's a female vampire with him."
Oh, for fucks sake. Why did I ask?
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